The Essential Dykes to Watch Out for

by Alison Bechdel

Book Overview

Settle in to this wittily illustrated soap opera (Bechdel calls it "half op-ed column and half endless serialized Victorian novel") of the lives, loves, and politics of Mo, Lois, Sydney, Sparrow, Ginger, Stuart, Clarice, and the rest of the cast of cult-fav characters. Most of them are lesbians, living in a midsize American city that may or may not be Minneapolis. Bechdel's brilliantly imagined countercultural band of friends--academics, social...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0358424178
• ISBN13: 9780358424178
• Release Date: September 2020
• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 2.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 7.9" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Absolutely essential!

Excellent! If you are a fan of Alison Bechdel, then this book is essential. Although some of the strips are not included, you can still follow the Adventures of Mo and her friends. It is definitely THE book to buy. Hardcover and only US$[...]. The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For

A brilliant book

You can run out of superlatives trying to do justice to this compilation, just wonderful ! ...buy it

Good enough to keep, good enough to give away

Some books you read and pass along; some books you read and keep; the best books are those that you read, keep, and buy copy after copy of to ensure that EVERYONE you know reads them too. You may not have been there all along, grabbing the fortnightly alternative paper from the top of the jukebox and leafing through it to see if a new episode of DTWOF had appeared - reading it with glee whilst ignoring the offer of the strikingly good-looking (YOUR GENDER HERE) to buy you a drink - but now you have your chance. Catch up. Read it straight through, or dip in again and again. It's the counterculture FRIENDS: You'll never get tired of DYKES TO WATCH OUT FOR. Buy at least two copies, all right? And make not just your own but also someone else's Yuletide gay.

Essential Goodness

And there they are on pages 76-77, the first DTWOF strips I ever saw. They were in a student run women's paper in the Fall of 1991, I had just arrived at the university and my life was about to change for the better. Therefore, it's impossible for me to be completely objective when I talk about this strip and its brilliant creator (channeler?), Alison Bechdel. At first I didn't know what to make of the strip - I feel like I walked through my first two decades in a haze because I was not used to a comic strip dramedy. It didn't take me long to fall in love with it. I bought all the collections that were available at the time (three books!), saw Bechdel's slide show when she came around to my school and even wrote her a letter - and she responded. I still have that letter. It's great to see so many strips reproduced here, forming a running narrative of twenty years in the lives of the characters. Not all of the strips are here nor are the nifty little supplements that the older books included but for the first time reader, I don't think they'll feel the loss. They can also go and seek out some of the older books for completion. This is one of the best graphic arts collections of the year.

Brilliant! The latest DTWOF book along with a hefty retrospective

Whether you've been anxiously awaiting the next installment after Invasion of the Dykes to Watch Out For, or have lost track of our favorite lesbian heriones and want to get caught up, this is the book for you. Hardcore fans will be delighted to see that we have an entire new book's worth of fresh, unpublished comics to get us up to date. I looked at how many comics each of the previous books has had, and we have an equal amount of new content in this one. But, for only a little bit extra, you get this thick, glorious retrospective which takes us through the entire series, giving us clips and the best highlights from over the years. If you missed the last couple books - no worries - this will catch you up enough to enjoy the latest comics at the end. And if you've read everything and just want the latest book - you won't be disappointed with everything else included. I've read every book multiple times, and I enjoyed reading the entire thing as a lead-up to the new comics at the end. Bechdel is my number one favorite cartoonist ever, and I'm not even a lesbian - I just find her characters are so human and so interesting that I connect with their lives deeply. So if you read Fun House and aren't sure if you might like to move on to this series, I'd encourage you to pick up this book and give it a try.